Ikea Nensa Table upcycle hack £10

Ikea Nensa Upcycle hack £10

Hello, lovelies. So, this week. I have been putting my hand to a bit of upcycling. Namely, the Ikea Nensa table. In today’s post, I am going to show you a fab little upcycle hack for what is essentially a £10 bedside table.

It is so easy to change the look of a piece of furniture, and with chalk paint, no real skill is required!

I was on the hunt for a little table that I could place my coffee on when in my lounge. Ideally, I was looking for something that was solid oak to match most of my other furniture. My lounge is a mix of traditional solid wood pieces, contemporary and second-hand upcycled jems. I love the shabby look the mix of woods, colours and style gives to my lounge space.

I hunted around for a while and even most second-hand tables were over £60. I then came across the Nensa from Ikea, which is essentially a bedside table. But knowing I could work some magic on it, I knew it would be a perfect fit for my lounge.

So, if you’re looking for something practical and pretty, but don’t have the cash to splash, keep reading this post!

What will you need?

As this post is all about furniture on a budget, I have made sure that all of the items used are affordable products.

Paint – I usually use Annie Sloan chalk paint for my projects, but I came across this version in Aldi for £4.99. Annie Sloan is usually around £19.99 for the same size tin, so you are saving a ton of money! I would usually wax my furniture after painting with the Annie Sloan wax, but again for budget upcycling, I am skipping this part. As the table has a glass top, the wax isn’t so important. If this were a more expensive piece of furniture, then I would always suggest sealing the paint work with something such as wax.

Brush and Roller – The best brush to use is a round stiff bristle brush. You can pick these up really cheaply at B&Q. Also, if you prefer a roller, you can pick up some mini rollers. For this piece today, I used a brush only.

Masking Tape – For masking any edges that you want to keep free from paint. I took the table apart for the purpose of painting but you could just mask around the glass.

Sand Paper – This is to distress the edges, to make the paint finish look less ‘done’. This technique ages a piece of furniture and makes it look like it has wear marks, which I just love.

Technique

Honestly, this is so simple, you will want to upcycle EVERYTHING!

The table comes with just an MDF finish, no varnish, no gloss, no paint. Which is a perfect starting point for a chalk paint project, meaning no need for sanding.

First of all, I took the table apart, so that I had all the little pieces which I could paint individually. If this is possible, I always think this gives a better finihsh.

I then took my brush and started to paint thin layers of paint roughly onto the wood. Allowing each side to dry before I did the other. I gave each piece of wood two coats, which gave just the right finish.

Once fully dry, I assembled the piece back together and grabbed my sandpaper.

The trick to ageing a piece is to sandpaper where the furniture would get naturally worn, for example round the edges. I then just sand part of the paint away to reveal some of the wood underneath.

Like this.

You can age the piece as much or as little as you like.

Then just style your new piece of furniture with some fitting accessories and voilà there you have it! Upcycle for under 20 quid!

I just want to mention. This used such a tiny amount of paint that I still practically have a whole tin for my next project. I used dove grey for my piece, but this would look fab in a duck egg or teal green.